Saturday’s Prep Football: Thomas Airs It Out as Pirates Drub Life Christian

STILL PERFECT: No. 1 Adna Scores 27 in First Quarter of 59-0 Mountain Division Rout
By Aaron VanTuyl
For The Chronicle
LAKEWOOD — For Adna, Saturday night’s trip to Harry Lang Stadium served mostly as a chance to spit-shine a few aspects of the offense and defense.
After a 59-0 SWW 2B League Mountain Division win over Life Christian Academy, though, it was tough to see any areas in need of improvement.
Braden Thomas completed 14 of 15 passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns, the defense held the Eagles to negative rushing yardage and the Pirates had a 40-point led midway through the second quarter.
The top-ranked Pirates (6-0, 2-0 league) were coming off a decisive win over rival Napavine and tuning up for key Mountain Division matchups with Rainier (5-1) and undefeated Onalaska. All four teams are ranked in the Associated Press’ 2B poll.
“We’ve got a couple real tough games coming up,” Adna coach K.C. Johnson said, “so this was a good one to have tonight to get everybody a chance to work on some stuff.”
Thomas figured heavily into that plan. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound junior transferred to Adna late last fall from Walla Walla High School, where he’d been a varsity tailback as a sophomore. The Pirates operated out of the shotgun on offense Saturday, giving Thomas a chance to show what he’s learned since the end of summer.
“He’s gotten a lot better. He’s not pressing as much anymore,” Johnson said. “I was really happy that he looked calmer tonight. He threw the ball well.”
Thomas completed his first eight passes, going 3 for 3 on the Pirates’ opening drive to set up an 18-yard touchdown run by Chance Fay just 2 minutes into the game. He completed two more on the next drive, for a total of 24 yards, to set up a 1-yard scoring run from Fay.
Thomas added an 11-yard rushing touchdown 5 minutes into the first quarter, then hit Brady Collins on a swing pass for a 12-yard touchdown with 2 ½ minutes left in the first.
Thomas’ only incompletion was a 16-yard toss to Collins, who actually caught the pass in the front corner of the end zone with a foot out of bounds. Collins, a senior wideout, caught five passes for 73 yards — all in the first quarter.
“We need to be able to do that as the season goes (on),” Johnson said. “We know against teams like Onalaska, we’ve got to throw it around. … We don’t want to get into smashmouth with those guys, I know that.”
The Pirates led 27-0 after a quarter, and never let Life Christian get its wheels turning. The Eagles lost four fumbles and just one of the five players to run the ball finished with positive yardage.
Adna, meanwhile, piled up 267 yards on the ground. Fay finished with three carries for 42 yards, his younger brother Cole ran six times for 66 yards and Thomas ran four times for 54 yards.
Chance Fay added a pair of sacks on the defensive side, and Johnson said the coaching staff worked in a few new wrinkles to keep their defensive players on their toes and avoid any type of letdown on a week between ranked opponents.
“We made sure we put some stuff in defensively to kind of make it fun, and to challenge them,” Johnson said. “We got out of tonight what we wanted, and that’s all I can ask.”
Johnson added that sophomore Lane Baker stepped into a bigger role on the offensive line and played well.
Ashton Dowell recovered an Eagle fumble and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter, and Thomas found Camden Ryan from 2 yards out to put Adna up 40-0 at halftime.
The Pirates also got rushing touchdowns from Elmer Loose (38 yards), Tristan Ridley (8 yards) and Zach Berg (20 yards) in the second half.
Adna hosts Rainier on Friday for senior night in another Mountain Division matchup.
Life Christian (4-2, 0-2 league) plays Morton-White Pass in Randle on Friday.